We live in a duality, surrounded by naturally produced landscape and man-produced cityscapes, side-by-side, each inspiring us and drawing us into their uniquely different, yet strangely corresponding attributes. Many seek to differentiate between landscapes and cityscapes, yet an emotionally open conversation about our modern -scapes reveal just how similar our connection is to both.

Regardless of the type, both landscapes and cityscapes touch on basic emotional responses in viewers. They depict in simple term the tapestry of our modern lives, whether in the natural world of mother nature or the concrete world of the cities we have built. -scapes draw the viewer into the scenes with illustrious adaptations of the passage of time and familiarities.

“My aim is to capture the fleeting moment” says Kathleen Walsh when describing her scenes. In her piece, California Dreaming, Big Sur, we see her use of tones and palette as they loosely, almost abstractly - with hard and faint lines - convey an emotional temperance to a scene whose existence was short lived. Linda Hollett-Bazouzi is “driven by a sense of impending change, whether by human development or weather, season or light”, when she chooses her scenes. A viewer can see this impending change in her piece, Rappahannock River, October. The ripples of the river are almost lifelike with Hollett’s interplay of blue tones and her use of detailed lines. Overlapping lines accentuate the different cloud structures and foreshadow a changing front - allowing the viewer to not only look at the painting, but allow us to view the scene in person.

Diane Pyun, Lost Stories, 2016, oil on linen, 24"x24"

Diane Pyun, subtly hints at this change and immersion. “The same scene asks to be painted repeatedly as the atmosphere changes”, says Pyun. Her diverse use of shadowy tones, mixed with a rich palette are on display in her piece Lost Stories, which captures the fading sunlight and beckons the day to a close. Her goal is to “capture the imagination of the viewer and jog memories of their own experiences.” This jogging of memories draws our emotional connection to landscapes and cityscapes and allows us to experience the sights and sounds first hand.

Nicole Kennedy, Most Beautiful Balcony, oil on linen, 48"x36"

Nicole Kennedy “shadows and use of subtle colors take a back seat to the intensity of focal points...”. In her piece, Most Beautiful Balcony, she uses hard and soft edges to direct how she wants the “viewer to travel around the canvas”. The careful interplay of shadows and color direction draw the viewer into the painting with warmth and comfort. The emotional connection of the viewer’s mood is a goal of Rebekah Haslett - “It’s hard to define but it’s a combination of light and color and mood that all comes together to make me want to paint it”. Rebekah’s careful and deliberate brush strokes in Maine Waves punctuate the sensory reaction for “a viewer to be[sic] want to “walk into” my paintings”.

Rebekah Haslett, Maine Wave, 2016, oil on linen, 9"x12"

This lure into a painting does not stop at realism landscapes and cityscapes. A wonderful juxtaposition is Ginny Lassiter’s abstract landscape, City Series II. Her use of “ architectural elements, in particular rooflines” creates an optical temptation of walking around the painting. Although abstract a viewer senses familiarity with the lines and edges.

The essence of time and participation draws us into understanding the presence of landscape and cityscape paintings. Their relevance to our surroundings allows the viewer to connect with the emotional temperance of the scene and allows the viewer to develop that quintessential connection that draws us in to where we can smell, touch, and feel the scene. In the following pages we have featured some award-winning artists whose works depict the very -scapes we seek to escape into.